Combining green energy production with hazardous waste recycling: Railway sleepers as support of photovoltaic systems

Abstract

It is now widely accepted that the circular economy can be the solution to the problems of the Earth's increasingly scarce resources. Some products become hazardous waste after fulfilling their function. In parallel with this phenomenon, renewable energy sources play an increasingly important role in energy production and supply, but retrofitting existing facilities is difficult. We offer a proposal to solve the above two problems, knowing that the "greening" of large customers can serve as a model for other segments and players. Therefore, we propose for further consideration the partial solar energy supply of the Liszt Ferenc International Airport's energy needs with a PVGIS system ("Photovoltaic Geographical Information System"), which can prevent 1,300 tons of CO2 emissions. The special feature of the proposal is that we want to build the supporting structure of the solar panel system using a certain set of hazardous waste, railway sleepers, which currently pose a significant environmental burden.